Uhe midi learn

[Urs]

But there should be no difference in performance or quality that would make one format preferable over the other.

For years I've been under the impression that vst3 handles cpu management better than vst2.
I thought that a vst3 plugin is shut off when not used, while a vst2 plugin is always a bit on.
My source for this is pretty much any web page regarding vst2 versus vst3, for example this comparison which came up as one of my first search results.

Have I been misled?

Well, in VST3 parameter changes (and thus MIDI mapped to parameters) are handled in the process call. This was seen as progress, as it removes threading issues. Yay! However, if the plug-in stops processing, it also can't process parameter changes anymore. This has caused so many bug reports that I guess quite a few plug-in developers prefer to simply process all the time, and do their own "I do nothing if I don't make any noise". Which then is the same as in VST2. Just a wild - but educated - guess.

(but yes, it was always possible to go into hibernation for a plug-in while there wasn't any audio...)

[markus.schloesser]

The daw needs to implement this feature and at least ableton hasn't done this (yet).

This feature is also a source of bug reports every now and then, as many users are not aware of this and are wondering why the sound suddenly cuts out.

I know, somebody is facing that with AU right now.
But if you can render and have tails calculated, the same should be possible for turning off plugins.

[krans]

Well, in VST3 parameter changes (and thus MIDI mapped to parameters) are handled in the process call. This was seen as progress, as it removes threading issues. Yay! However, if the plug-in stops processing, it also can't process parameter changes anymore. This has caused so many bug reports that I guess quite a few plug-in developers prefer to simply process all the time, and do their own "I do nothing if I don't make any noise". Which then is the same as in VST2. Just a wild - but educated - guess.

(but yes, it was always possible to go into hibernation for a plug-in while there wasn't any audio...)

This whole vst3 handling cpu better is something I've never managed to notice, I've only read about it, thinking it sounds superior to vst2.
But regarding what you're writing, I have in fact probably never experienced it at all. So my vst3s and vst2s have probably behaved pretty much the same this whole time.
Thanks for clearing it up!